This invention relates to a refrigerator and microwave oven enclosed in the same cabinet with unique electrical circuitry, so as to provide the convenience of storing and cooking food simultaneously in the same unit, while avoiding the peak power demands of simultaneous operation of the refrigerator compressor and the microwave magnetron. The invention finds particular application in buildings having older wiring and fewer circuits, by minimizing the possibilities of overloading such circuits while providing safe uninterrupted service. It also prevents overloading a more modern circuit which is "dedicated" to the apparatus by preventing start-up of the compressor during operation of the magnetron.
Microwave ovens are now commonly available in quick stop grocery stores and lunch rooms for heating and cooking foodstuffs purchased across the counter and from vending machines. Prior to the above-referenced Bennett application though, it had not been proposed to combine a microwave oven and refrigerator on a smaller scale in the same cabinet, particularly with provision for limiting the peak instantaneous power consumption so as to make the combination useful and attractive for use by students in dorm rooms, resort hotel rooms, tractor trailer cabs, recreational vehicles, so-called pullman efficiencies and the like.
The remaining prior art teaches refrigerated storage and a microwave oven combined in the same vending machine cabinet, and provision for transporting a selected item to the microwave oven for heating and subsequent removal from the machine. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,651 discloses a switch, associated with a stack of food containers and actuated upon insertion of the uppermost container from the stack into a microwave oven, which causes a motor to drive a screw which, in turn, raises the stack until the next uppermost container changes the state of the switch. The amount of time that it takes for the switch to be changed by the raising stack determines the time of de-energization of a relay 56 which, in turn, determines how long the refrigerator is off and the microwave oven is on.
It is among the objects of the instant invention to combine prior art appliances into a single more convenient apparatus by utilizing a single molded, insulated shell containing both a microwave oven and a refrigerator, while at the same time providing adequate ventilation of both and limiting instantaneous peak power consumption by the combination.